Driven by demand for more computing power in devices with ever decreasing form factors, system-on-chip (SoC) device continue to pack more functionality per die area. These highly integrated devices combine a variety of intellectual property (IP) blocks into a complex distributed computing system. These devices also include a suite of embedded software executed on multiple processor cores for performing task, such as managing power consumption, executing application level software, processing audio/video, and operating wireless transceivers.
Because these devices are highly integrated, interactions among embedded software modules and IP blocks may significantly contribute to the overall performance of the SoC device. And during development and bring-up of the SoC device, SoC providers may collaborate with several embedded software vendors to implement, test, and optimize these interactions to achieve a desired overall performance level of the SoC. But while collaboration may benefit the SoC provider, collaboration also raises concerns about how to protect against piracy and malware of embedded code among embedded software providers.